Adoption changes Hawaii birth record

A report in the Hawaii Medical Journal by a health-agency manager published six years before Barack Obama’s birth indicated that an adoption in the Aloha state required a change in the child’s birth record.

When a new certificate was made, the original birth certificate was sealed in an envelope that could be opened only by court order, according to Charles G. Bennett in the 1955 report.

Bennett was identified as an official with the Bureau of Health Statistics of the Territorial Health Department before the islands were granted statehood. He continued in his role as an authority, later serving as an assistant executive officer of the Research and Planning Section, Research, Planning and Statistics Office in the Hawaii State Department of Health after statehood.